Kashmiri culture comes to the fore with a new rendering from Fareeda
(Dr. Fareeda Majeed Kak, 53, was born in Nowpora Khanyar, Srinagar. She received traditional Quranic and Islamic education from a learned local lady, besides receiving primary education from Govt. Primary School Nowpora, Srinagar. She was admitted to Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School Khanyar for school education and completed her B.A. (Arts) from Govt. College for women Nawakadal. In 1979 she joined the Department of Urdu in the University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, and got merit scholarship because of topping the list in B.A. In 1982-83 she completed her M. Phil under the auspicious guidance of Late Professor Al Ahmad Saroor, one of the leading scholars of India and in 1985 she was awarded Ph.D. degree on the topic “Iqbal Aur Kashmir”. Same year she was appointed as adhoc teacher in the Higher Secondary School in Zewan, Pampore, and got married to renowned naturalist Dr. A. Majeed Kak. In 1986 she got a permanent appointment in School, and in 1993 she was appointed by the Public Service Commission as a teacher for higher education and since then has worked in various degree colleges like Government College for Boys Ananatnag, Women’s Nawakadal College, and presently working in the Government College Bemina as Associate Professor and the department head in the Department of Urdu. Dr. Fareeda Kak is a regular writer for various local dalies and other national journals, she also has poetic approach. Recently she published a book entitled “Iqbal Aur Kashmir”. The book is highly appreciated by the Iqbal Institute of Research and Philosophy in Kashmir University and was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor Dr. Riyaz Punjabi in presence of invited leading scholars of India and in a mammoth gathering on 22nd April 2010 on the occasion of Iqbal Day at the Gandhi Bhawan. Fikri Iqbal is her second book presently in the press for publication.
Book Review - Iqbal and Kashmir
(Prof. Mohammad Aslam, Department of English, the University of Kashmir, reviews a book on the poet of the east by Dr. Farida Majeed Kak)
Book: Iqbal and Kashmir
Author: Dr. Farida Majeed Kak
Publisher: Minhas Publication
Year Publication: 2010
Price : Rs. 600/-
That Allama Iqbal was a Kashmeri Brahmin whose ancestors lefty their native place and settled in Sialkot, Pakistan might appear a thing of no interest today because many people have written about it, also any discussions on his thoughts about Kashmir and Kashmiris would seems rather too obvious because many books and research papers have been published in this regard, but how many of us know that these now/ known facts would have remained shrouded in mystery had not our young scholars and Iqbal lovers taken a lead in demystifying many of the contentious issues about him. For instance, Jagan Nath Azad’s pioneering research brought to light many hidden aspects of Iqbal’s life, especially his date of birth. Many M Phil and Ph D projects carried out in Universities unearthed different aspects of Iqbal’s poetry and philosophy.
Kashmiris love for Iqbal is not unknown, whether we really understand Him or not, he has always been a part of our academic programme at all levels of education. In the school days we would known him by his ‘Childs prayer’—Lab pe aati hai dua’ ban key tamanna meri --- or’ song of India’, Sarey Jahan sae accha Hindustan hamara’ a morning assembly song in most of schools. He was there in College Urdu text books. He was studied at the University of Kashmir under the aegis of Urdu department. However, the Iqbal chair at the university, established in the seventies of the last century--- which eventually became the Iqbal Institute and now the Iqbal Institute of Culture and Philosophy--- provided a platform to Iqbal’s scholars to clear many ambiguities about Iqbal’s life and many insightful research works carried out under the guidance of the first Iqbal chair, Prof. Al Ahmad Saroor.
Iqbal and Kashmir by Dr. Fareeda Majeed Kak (FMK, hereafter) is one such study which the author had carried out fro her PhD under the supervision of Late Prof. Saroor and which she now come out in a book form like Prof. Bashir A. Nahvi (‘Foreward’), I am surprised why this book should have taken such a long time to get published. One can understand the difficulties that writers, hear, face in publishing their works, especially when the readership is not that encouraging! Anyways, better late than never, FMK has ultimately mustered courage (and also means, it seems) to publish the research work on her own. This doesn’t belittle the book. Shakespeare appeared in the written form much after his plays had been staged at Stratford-Upon-Avon. He continues to be studied. Iqbal and Kashmir is a book of all times in Bacon’s terminology and therefore deserves to be read with interest so that we appreciate how vague and mystified Iqbal’s life, in general, and his relationship with Kashmir, in particular, has remained, mostly because of lack of research on and about Iqbal. The author’s work on genealogy, tracing his origin to ancient Kashmir and his subsequent moorings through his poems and contacts about the pathetic condition of his birth palace and its people, assumes significance because it does not talk through hearsay but very authentic documents on and about Iqbal and which are now available in libraries of most of the universities where Urdu is taught as a subject.
Iqbal and Kashmir contains nine chapters which are preceded by ‘Forward’ by Professor. B.A. Nehvi, ‘Commentary’ by Professor. S.M. Iqbal and ‘introduction’ and followed by a well documented ‘Bibliography’. Chapters 1 and 2 trace the Allama’s genealogy, his dynasty, birthplace etc. FMK has as a researcher collected all the relevant data and compared that with the Allama’s own statements so that she could arrive at a certain conclusion about whether the Allama was a Kashmiri Pandit or he belonged to the Sapru Family. Naturally these two characters contain well documented Urdu and Persian poetic lines from Iqbal which point to his belonging to a Kashmeri Pandit dynasty. Chapter three attempts to trace Allama’s families converting to Islam. After quoting from Muhammad Din Fauq, FMK concludes that Iqbal’s Family has accepted Islam in the Fifteenth century “that is, about 450 years before Allama Iqbal was born and when Delhi was under Sayid or after them under King Sultan Bahlool Lodhi” (p.81). In chapter four, FMK discusses Allama’s migration to Sialkot, Pakistan, taking a dig at some of the Allama’s biographers and documenting from historians like Muhammad Din Fauq and Shyam Lal Pardsi, FMK has found it hard to draw any conclusion on it. Since the Allama’s life history has remained a mystery, biographers have not been successful in determining the exact date/s of his and his family’s migration to Pakistan. The following chapter (5) traces Iqbal’s birthday once again, FMK has drawn on several works written about Allama, in general and his birthday, in particular. She has concluded “the statement of elders in the family of Allama Iqbal and some reliable persons approve 1294 hijra, in comparison to 1847 A.D.[as the Allama’s birthday]”.
The next three chapters (6-8) are devoted to the Allama’s visits to Kashmir and his acquaintances. How many times did he visit Kashmir, who hosted him and who were the people who went to Sialkot to visit him, what kind of contacts he had with the people here etc. all these have been discussed in great detail to place to place Iqbal’s love and concern for Kashmir in proper perspective. The author writes that Iqbal did not have much knowledge of the history of Kashmir (p.176), but he was very much interested in its literature and culture (p.177). The Chapter ‘Present Day Kashmir and Iqbal” discusses the Allama’s impact on Kashmir and Kashmiris extreme love for this poet of the East. “… Allama’s poetry and messages continue to impact Kashmir. Every year different colleges, schools and universities organize meetings and seminars to commemorate his anniversary” (p.437). In this chapter FMK also mentions the works which have been written in Kashmir on and about Iqbal. Strangely, the author has confined herself to the period when she was doing research at the Iqbal Institute. She would have added more weight to her argument had she updated her information and talked about how many other works have been written since her completing the research.
Iqbal and Kashmir is a piece of research and therefore the readers would come across all the academic paraphernalia that forms a part of any thesis and dissertation carried out for an M Phil or a PhD. Each statement quoted is documented, each line cited is properly referred to its original source and each chapter contains end-notes and references which are an essential part of any research work.
The book is hardbound with an impressive jacket with Iqbal’s photograph as if he is overlooking charming Dal Lake and huge Chinars. For a common man the price of the book (Rs. 600/-) could be a burden on his/her pocket, but libraries and departments concerned with Iqbal and his teachings, it should not deter them from adding a valuable book to their collection.
Monday, June 14, 2010
RTI is Dysfunctional in J&K
Ranbir exposes the J&K government stone-walling on implementation of the Right to Informaion (RTI) Act in J&K
(Mr. Ranbir Singh Pathania, 30, was born in born in Jammu city. He did his early schooling from the J.S. Luthra Academy and the S.R.M.L. Higher Secondary School, Jammu. He graduated from the G.G.M. Science College, Jammu, with distinction, and went on to earn his law degree from the University of Jammu with distinction in the Constitutional Law. He is a practicing lawyer in the Jammu seat of the J&K High Court and subordinate courts in Jammu. Mr. Pathania has taken on prestigious cases like the Siddhra land scam, B.Ed. colleges scandal, etc. and is one of the vocal advocates for the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to root out corruption, preserve heritage and enforce the Right to Information (RTI) law. He is the General Secretary of jagriti Samaj and a member of the Advisory and Constitution Amendment Committee of the J&K Bar association. He was selected for the "Best Citizens of India" award by the Best Citizens Publishing House.)
Tall Claims of Government on RTI
The Prince Charming of J & K has confessed as to much needs to be done in the implementation of ‘right of information’ in J & K. The cryptic comment reminds me of a quote of a political scientist, ‘Less you intend to do a thing in politics, the more you have to talk about it’. If slogans and sermons could have been able to do the goods for ‘aam aadmi’, J & K by now would have turned into happy oasis of a state.
The Right to Information has long back been declared as a fundamental right by the Courts. But, ‘We, The People of India’ took more than five decades to enact a comprehensive law on the subject. An informed citizenry and accountable governance is the life and blood of a vibrant democracy.
The RTI revolution which swept across like an avalanche the criss-cross of this rumble-tumble nation seems to have halted somewhere near Lakhanpur. Thanks to our special status. Although the Act is boasted of having been brought at par with the central law, there is a sea of difference between the bark and the bite.
The non-constitution of State Information Commission even after elapsing of more than a year since the coming into force of J & K RTI renders it soulless and limbless. The Act vests supervisory, enforcing and penalizing powers in SIC. Worse more, greater sway of government in the selection committee raises a question mark over the independence of Commission. Two out of three members (Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister) of the selection committee could easily secure a smooth-sail for their favourite playboys. The experience and example in rest of the states has shown that RTI has flourished under independent SICs. A biased SIC is all-sure to make a mockery of the historic law. But for the landmark rulings of Wajahat Habibullah and Shailesh Gandhi as Central Information Commissioners, writing a new lexicon on administrative law and governance, the concept of ‘right to information’ would not have been able to scale the lofty ‘Everest’ of bureaucratic over-reach. Being a Sybil who loves to tear all leaves of prophecy, I propose that RTI activists and people from judicial fraternity should be considered for appointment as Information Commissioners.
Shouldn’t the Blackberry-fiddling Chief Minister come out with a specific stand as to if the State Information Commission is also going to meet the same fate as that of Accountability Commission and State Human Rights Commission.
Time has come when we should strive towards formulating a national consensus on keeping issues like ‘right to information’ and ‘accountability’ above and aloof the reach of petty politics. Gone are the days when Lal Bahadur Shastri, had volunteered to direct the Railways Department to verify if the job given to his son was on the count that he was son of a prime minister.
The requirement of Rs. 50 per application and Rs. 10 per page as photostat charges and Rs. 100 per CD seems to have eroded the very essence and edifice of the Act. Majority of the departments have not complied with the requirement of section 4 of the Act envisaging mandatory disclosure of information in the form of an information booklet within 120 days of promulgation of Act. The departments quip to have APIOs upto district and block level. Many of them do not have websites. Interestingly, state High Court is not a ‘public body’ as per the Act. The Public Information Officers, Assistant Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities are least versed in the job. That is why, majority of applications and appeals under RTI Act are hanging fire despite expiry of statutory period. I fear if I am too wishful, but cannot it be like that, all applications and appeals under RTI should be entertained and disposed online.
This columnist – nursing an unusual penchant for bombarding government offices with a diverse rainbow of RTI queries – approached J & K Legislative Assembly, a few days ago, with an application under RTI Act where it took him two weeks to get his application simply registered. The registration was followed by a fat ‘no’ from the stiff-necked authorities denying the information as sought for by him on the very ground that RTI Act runs in face of Rules of Procedure of J & K Legislative Assembly. This is the level of consciousness and promptitude the temple of legislation and law-making in J & K nurtures towards the epoch-making legislation. I am here reminded of a golden quote of George Bernard Shaw, “Good laws never make good people”.
RTI empowers citizens, promotes transparency and accountability in government working, contains corruption and makes democracy run in the real sense. The Sonia-PMO stand-off on bringing in an amendment banning access to file-notings under RTI has amused persons and RTI activists across the globe. The recent CIC ruling mandating the judges to disclose their assets has seen the Supreme Court appealing against the High Court judgement. The irony is really thoughtful and thought-provoking.
In J & K it looks as if – the ‘indifferent’ state and disinterested ‘aam aadmi’ – are least prepared to put into play the RTI law in its true spirit and colour. The power-players are busy in amusing the people by indulging in gimmickry of the worst sort over self-rule, autonomy and azaadi. And the 21st century Gen Young seems over-indulgent in watching IPL, relishing seductive news-stories about Sania-Shoaib wedding and Kat-Salman love-affair, enjoying cheeseburgers and diet cokes and discussing latest fashions, Nakshtra diamonds and reality shows in cosy clubs and resplendent restaurants.
The tell-tale of much-hyped and much-boasted-of Accountability Commission is also no less disgusting and disinteresting. ‘It rose like a star and fell like a stone’ is possible an appropriate one-liner attribute to it. Hundreds of skeletons of ministers and bureaucrats lie buried underneath its cupboard and the Commission hangs headless since the past two years.
The headless State Human Rights Commission is also lying in limbo since long. Passing of judgments by it in cases of human rights violations after conduction of full-dressed trials has been as ceremonious as pouring water off a duck’s back. The recommendations are made for never to be implemented on ground. Zero tolerance to human rights violations is less a reality and more a political slogan.
When would the political hawks here come to understand that ensuring accountability, right to information and zero tolerance to human rights violations is the best autonomy, self-rule and azadi for the people of J & K.
No leader or legislator has raised these vital issues outside or on the floor of Assembly. That is why I am raising the ones in the peoples’ assembly. And I hope getting through a thumping peoples’ consensus and support on the sensitive issues.
(Mr. Ranbir Singh Pathania, 30, was born in born in Jammu city. He did his early schooling from the J.S. Luthra Academy and the S.R.M.L. Higher Secondary School, Jammu. He graduated from the G.G.M. Science College, Jammu, with distinction, and went on to earn his law degree from the University of Jammu with distinction in the Constitutional Law. He is a practicing lawyer in the Jammu seat of the J&K High Court and subordinate courts in Jammu. Mr. Pathania has taken on prestigious cases like the Siddhra land scam, B.Ed. colleges scandal, etc. and is one of the vocal advocates for the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to root out corruption, preserve heritage and enforce the Right to Information (RTI) law. He is the General Secretary of jagriti Samaj and a member of the Advisory and Constitution Amendment Committee of the J&K Bar association. He was selected for the "Best Citizens of India" award by the Best Citizens Publishing House.)
Tall Claims of Government on RTI
The Prince Charming of J & K has confessed as to much needs to be done in the implementation of ‘right of information’ in J & K. The cryptic comment reminds me of a quote of a political scientist, ‘Less you intend to do a thing in politics, the more you have to talk about it’. If slogans and sermons could have been able to do the goods for ‘aam aadmi’, J & K by now would have turned into happy oasis of a state.
The Right to Information has long back been declared as a fundamental right by the Courts. But, ‘We, The People of India’ took more than five decades to enact a comprehensive law on the subject. An informed citizenry and accountable governance is the life and blood of a vibrant democracy.
The RTI revolution which swept across like an avalanche the criss-cross of this rumble-tumble nation seems to have halted somewhere near Lakhanpur. Thanks to our special status. Although the Act is boasted of having been brought at par with the central law, there is a sea of difference between the bark and the bite.
The non-constitution of State Information Commission even after elapsing of more than a year since the coming into force of J & K RTI renders it soulless and limbless. The Act vests supervisory, enforcing and penalizing powers in SIC. Worse more, greater sway of government in the selection committee raises a question mark over the independence of Commission. Two out of three members (Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister) of the selection committee could easily secure a smooth-sail for their favourite playboys. The experience and example in rest of the states has shown that RTI has flourished under independent SICs. A biased SIC is all-sure to make a mockery of the historic law. But for the landmark rulings of Wajahat Habibullah and Shailesh Gandhi as Central Information Commissioners, writing a new lexicon on administrative law and governance, the concept of ‘right to information’ would not have been able to scale the lofty ‘Everest’ of bureaucratic over-reach. Being a Sybil who loves to tear all leaves of prophecy, I propose that RTI activists and people from judicial fraternity should be considered for appointment as Information Commissioners.
Shouldn’t the Blackberry-fiddling Chief Minister come out with a specific stand as to if the State Information Commission is also going to meet the same fate as that of Accountability Commission and State Human Rights Commission.
Time has come when we should strive towards formulating a national consensus on keeping issues like ‘right to information’ and ‘accountability’ above and aloof the reach of petty politics. Gone are the days when Lal Bahadur Shastri, had volunteered to direct the Railways Department to verify if the job given to his son was on the count that he was son of a prime minister.
The requirement of Rs. 50 per application and Rs. 10 per page as photostat charges and Rs. 100 per CD seems to have eroded the very essence and edifice of the Act. Majority of the departments have not complied with the requirement of section 4 of the Act envisaging mandatory disclosure of information in the form of an information booklet within 120 days of promulgation of Act. The departments quip to have APIOs upto district and block level. Many of them do not have websites. Interestingly, state High Court is not a ‘public body’ as per the Act. The Public Information Officers, Assistant Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities are least versed in the job. That is why, majority of applications and appeals under RTI Act are hanging fire despite expiry of statutory period. I fear if I am too wishful, but cannot it be like that, all applications and appeals under RTI should be entertained and disposed online.
This columnist – nursing an unusual penchant for bombarding government offices with a diverse rainbow of RTI queries – approached J & K Legislative Assembly, a few days ago, with an application under RTI Act where it took him two weeks to get his application simply registered. The registration was followed by a fat ‘no’ from the stiff-necked authorities denying the information as sought for by him on the very ground that RTI Act runs in face of Rules of Procedure of J & K Legislative Assembly. This is the level of consciousness and promptitude the temple of legislation and law-making in J & K nurtures towards the epoch-making legislation. I am here reminded of a golden quote of George Bernard Shaw, “Good laws never make good people”.
RTI empowers citizens, promotes transparency and accountability in government working, contains corruption and makes democracy run in the real sense. The Sonia-PMO stand-off on bringing in an amendment banning access to file-notings under RTI has amused persons and RTI activists across the globe. The recent CIC ruling mandating the judges to disclose their assets has seen the Supreme Court appealing against the High Court judgement. The irony is really thoughtful and thought-provoking.
In J & K it looks as if – the ‘indifferent’ state and disinterested ‘aam aadmi’ – are least prepared to put into play the RTI law in its true spirit and colour. The power-players are busy in amusing the people by indulging in gimmickry of the worst sort over self-rule, autonomy and azaadi. And the 21st century Gen Young seems over-indulgent in watching IPL, relishing seductive news-stories about Sania-Shoaib wedding and Kat-Salman love-affair, enjoying cheeseburgers and diet cokes and discussing latest fashions, Nakshtra diamonds and reality shows in cosy clubs and resplendent restaurants.
The tell-tale of much-hyped and much-boasted-of Accountability Commission is also no less disgusting and disinteresting. ‘It rose like a star and fell like a stone’ is possible an appropriate one-liner attribute to it. Hundreds of skeletons of ministers and bureaucrats lie buried underneath its cupboard and the Commission hangs headless since the past two years.
The headless State Human Rights Commission is also lying in limbo since long. Passing of judgments by it in cases of human rights violations after conduction of full-dressed trials has been as ceremonious as pouring water off a duck’s back. The recommendations are made for never to be implemented on ground. Zero tolerance to human rights violations is less a reality and more a political slogan.
When would the political hawks here come to understand that ensuring accountability, right to information and zero tolerance to human rights violations is the best autonomy, self-rule and azadi for the people of J & K.
No leader or legislator has raised these vital issues outside or on the floor of Assembly. That is why I am raising the ones in the peoples’ assembly. And I hope getting through a thumping peoples’ consensus and support on the sensitive issues.
Rooting Out Corruption in J&K
Burhan puts his faith on Accountability
Accountability Must for Corruption-Free JK
Burhan Majid
It has been rightly said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Power conferred on any branch of the government tends to be misused and the state of Jammu and Kashmir is no exception.
Corruption has acquired epidemic proportions in the state. A survey by a Transparency International listed J&K as the second most corrupt state in India.
Corruption has transcended all barriers. It is prevalent in every sphere of our society. It is deep-rooted in the system. It encourages injustice and oppression. The rot has not even spared non-governmental sector with some charitable organisations also engaged in this evil practice. In some offices people resort to corrupt means openly.
Accountability will help in eradicating this menace of corruption. Infact it has become a prerequisite for a corruption-free society.
A very important observation made by Apex court in Dinesh Trivedi, M.P. & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors: “Democracy expects openness and openness is the concomitant of a free society and sunlight is the best disinfectant” seems to be quite complimentary to the definition given by Abraham Lincoln that “Democracy is the government of the people, for the people and by the people.”
To ensure the application of these dicta, exposing things to the sunlight is sine qua non. In other words, free flow of information to common masses is of the essence in as much as an informed citizenry and transparency of information are vital to the functioning of a democratic government.
This underlines the need for right to information. In Rajnarain’s case and Indian Express newspaper’s case, the Apex court held that fundamental right to freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1) (a) of the constitution of India was based on the foundation of the freedom of right to know and all citizens must have the right to know about the activities of the govt. This is based on the reason that participation of the people is regarded as an important aspect of democracy and people cannot participate until they have the knowledge as to what is going on in a country. Therefore, it is of the prime importance to allow people to have information so as to maintain the democratic credentials of a particular country.
In the landmark S.P.Gupta Vs Union of India, one of the leading judges Bhagwati J while expressing faith in the open government emphasised that, “Where a society has chosen to accept democracy as its creedal faith, it is elementary that the citizens ought to know what their government is doing. No democratic government can survive without accountability and the basic postulate of accountability is that people should have information about the functioning of govt. If the processes and functioning of government are shrouded in secrecy and hidden from public exposure, it will tend to promote and encourage oppression, corruption, misuse and abuse of authority. But if there is an open government when means of information are available to the public, things would be exposed and the exposure to public gaze and scrutiny is the surest means of achieving a clean and healthy govt. An open government is regarded as the best government.”
Rightly so, if indeed a state adheres to the concept of open government there will be an obligation on the part of the public official(s) to justify the doings which, of course, would in turn ensure accountability.
J&K must also adopt principles of accountability and open government. Then only can the menace of corruption be weeded out. For this, inter-alia, the provisions of the J&K Right to Information Act, 2009 must be made effective in letter and spirit.
Accountability Must for Corruption-Free JK
Burhan Majid
It has been rightly said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Power conferred on any branch of the government tends to be misused and the state of Jammu and Kashmir is no exception.
Corruption has acquired epidemic proportions in the state. A survey by a Transparency International listed J&K as the second most corrupt state in India.
Corruption has transcended all barriers. It is prevalent in every sphere of our society. It is deep-rooted in the system. It encourages injustice and oppression. The rot has not even spared non-governmental sector with some charitable organisations also engaged in this evil practice. In some offices people resort to corrupt means openly.
Accountability will help in eradicating this menace of corruption. Infact it has become a prerequisite for a corruption-free society.
A very important observation made by Apex court in Dinesh Trivedi, M.P. & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors: “Democracy expects openness and openness is the concomitant of a free society and sunlight is the best disinfectant” seems to be quite complimentary to the definition given by Abraham Lincoln that “Democracy is the government of the people, for the people and by the people.”
To ensure the application of these dicta, exposing things to the sunlight is sine qua non. In other words, free flow of information to common masses is of the essence in as much as an informed citizenry and transparency of information are vital to the functioning of a democratic government.
This underlines the need for right to information. In Rajnarain’s case and Indian Express newspaper’s case, the Apex court held that fundamental right to freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1) (a) of the constitution of India was based on the foundation of the freedom of right to know and all citizens must have the right to know about the activities of the govt. This is based on the reason that participation of the people is regarded as an important aspect of democracy and people cannot participate until they have the knowledge as to what is going on in a country. Therefore, it is of the prime importance to allow people to have information so as to maintain the democratic credentials of a particular country.
In the landmark S.P.Gupta Vs Union of India, one of the leading judges Bhagwati J while expressing faith in the open government emphasised that, “Where a society has chosen to accept democracy as its creedal faith, it is elementary that the citizens ought to know what their government is doing. No democratic government can survive without accountability and the basic postulate of accountability is that people should have information about the functioning of govt. If the processes and functioning of government are shrouded in secrecy and hidden from public exposure, it will tend to promote and encourage oppression, corruption, misuse and abuse of authority. But if there is an open government when means of information are available to the public, things would be exposed and the exposure to public gaze and scrutiny is the surest means of achieving a clean and healthy govt. An open government is regarded as the best government.”
Rightly so, if indeed a state adheres to the concept of open government there will be an obligation on the part of the public official(s) to justify the doings which, of course, would in turn ensure accountability.
J&K must also adopt principles of accountability and open government. Then only can the menace of corruption be weeded out. For this, inter-alia, the provisions of the J&K Right to Information Act, 2009 must be made effective in letter and spirit.
Canine Power
Altaf, the citizen journalist, asks a simple question, "Why has Srinagar gone to dogs?"
What dogs Srinagar city?
Altaf Hussain
After having the ‘honour’ of being named the fourth dirtiest city in India, Srinagar is set to get another bad name or perhaps a dog name. Dogs have taken over all important roads, play fields and college grounds.
Muhammad Sultan Khan, 80, has been climbing the stairs of the Makhdoom Sahib Shrine everyday almost for the past 52 years. Now he has stopping doing it as dogs are seen on every step of the stairs leading to the shrine. The dogs soil outside the main gate of the shrine and any visitor to the shrine gets their shoes dirty. From the lawn of Mashali Mohalla Masjid Hawal to Hyderpora Chowk, dogs have made our surroundings dirty everywhere.
Three dozen dogs can be seen every day outside the gate of Islamic College for Science and Technology, Hawal. At times, these dogs have bitten students, devotes and morning walkers who had to spend Rs 30,000 each on medication to avoid rabies.
Altaf Qawi of Srinagar says he runs his life into risk every morning when he goes to attend prayers at the nearby Masjid walking amid dozens of dogs.
Appealing the chief minister to allot a piece of fenced land in every town, he says the land can be used to detain the stray dogs. “Even one gender of dogs can be kept in such fenced lawns. This can help check the dog population of Kashmir. If the government continues to be insensitive to this issue, time is not far when it will also get the ‘credit’ for the new dog name for Srinagar City.
What dogs Srinagar city?
Altaf Hussain
After having the ‘honour’ of being named the fourth dirtiest city in India, Srinagar is set to get another bad name or perhaps a dog name. Dogs have taken over all important roads, play fields and college grounds.
Muhammad Sultan Khan, 80, has been climbing the stairs of the Makhdoom Sahib Shrine everyday almost for the past 52 years. Now he has stopping doing it as dogs are seen on every step of the stairs leading to the shrine. The dogs soil outside the main gate of the shrine and any visitor to the shrine gets their shoes dirty. From the lawn of Mashali Mohalla Masjid Hawal to Hyderpora Chowk, dogs have made our surroundings dirty everywhere.
Three dozen dogs can be seen every day outside the gate of Islamic College for Science and Technology, Hawal. At times, these dogs have bitten students, devotes and morning walkers who had to spend Rs 30,000 each on medication to avoid rabies.
Altaf Qawi of Srinagar says he runs his life into risk every morning when he goes to attend prayers at the nearby Masjid walking amid dozens of dogs.
Appealing the chief minister to allot a piece of fenced land in every town, he says the land can be used to detain the stray dogs. “Even one gender of dogs can be kept in such fenced lawns. This can help check the dog population of Kashmir. If the government continues to be insensitive to this issue, time is not far when it will also get the ‘credit’ for the new dog name for Srinagar City.
When Will Srinagar Get Traffic Lights?
A better question may be, "When will Kashmiris mature to realize that life consists of accomodating others making their journey on an intersecting, but different, road?
Traffic Deptt, R&B Pass The Buck
Faheem Aslam (Greater Kashmir)
Srinagar: Notwithstanding traffic mismanagement, rising road accidents and mounting vehicular population, Jammu and Kashmir is yet to switch over to electronic traffic signals which, according to experts, can go a long way in effectively manning the traffic and minimizing accidents.
According to observers, traffic in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu was effectively regulated by the electronic traffic signals nearly four decades back. But today, the system is non-existent indicating the level of “retreat” in the traffic sector. Today only the remnants of traffic signals are seen in parts of Srinagar and Jammu cities.
“Traffic signals have been installed across the world. It is an effective system which can help us regulate the traffic effectively in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu,” said the former Inspector General of Police (Traffic), Muhammad Amin Shah.
Sources in the Traffic Department said they many a time mooted proposals to the Roads and Buildings Department, asking them to get the traffic signals installed at several road intersections identified by the department in Srinagar and Jammu. But the proposals, they said, were gathering dust as nobody was serious in having the signals installed.
Sources said a company which deals with installation of traffic signals had told the Traffic Department that it would install them free of cost, provided it was given the advertisement rights. “The company wanted to install its advertisements near the traffic signal spots. But the bureaucracy-bug ate the proposal,” they said.
Interestingly, the Traffic Department has called for an immediate installation of the electronic traffic signal in the state for effective traffic management. “The traffic police feels handicapped to effectively regulate traffic in the two cities, especially at the road intersections.
It has been observed, both at national and international level, that the effective mechanism to regulate traffic on the intersections is done by electronic traffic signals. The installation of traffic signals on the road intersections ensures, besides the volume and speed control, the saving of manpower, which ultimately leads to efficient regulation and effective safety on road intersections,” writes MA Shah in the Traffic Info 2010, the Department’s annual publication.
It adds: “Based on this principle, the whole world has switched over completely to electronic traffic regulation. Thus installing traffic signals in Jammu and Kashmir is a necessity to improve the traffic management on its roads.”
The department has conducted a survey of cities of Srinagar and Jammu, identifying 67 and 55 road intersections respectively, which require electronic signals for smooth traffic regulations. But the exercise has not yielded any concrete results, as proposals with regard to traffic regulation have allegedly been shelved by the PWD.
A senior traffic police official said it would not take more than Rs 10 crores to get the electronic traffic system installed in the two cities. “But the question is who will bell the cat? The project has become a victim of petty politics between the R&B, Traffic Department and parties that intend to install the system,” the official, pleading anonymity, said. “We had this system. But that time it was perhaps discarded because there was no power back up to the traffic lights. Today we have the power and we can install the system easily. You can see a quantum decrease in road accidents.”
When contacted, the Minister of State for R&B, Javed Ahmad Dar, said he was yet to see a proposal from the Traffic Department regarding the traffic signal installation. “We will install it. But the proposal has to come from the traffic department. And then we have to see its funding aspect also. Who’ll fund it? I think the traffic police have money to spend on the project. We can act as an executing agency,” he told Greater Kashmir
Traffic Deptt, R&B Pass The Buck
Faheem Aslam (Greater Kashmir)
Srinagar: Notwithstanding traffic mismanagement, rising road accidents and mounting vehicular population, Jammu and Kashmir is yet to switch over to electronic traffic signals which, according to experts, can go a long way in effectively manning the traffic and minimizing accidents.
According to observers, traffic in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu was effectively regulated by the electronic traffic signals nearly four decades back. But today, the system is non-existent indicating the level of “retreat” in the traffic sector. Today only the remnants of traffic signals are seen in parts of Srinagar and Jammu cities.
“Traffic signals have been installed across the world. It is an effective system which can help us regulate the traffic effectively in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu,” said the former Inspector General of Police (Traffic), Muhammad Amin Shah.
Sources in the Traffic Department said they many a time mooted proposals to the Roads and Buildings Department, asking them to get the traffic signals installed at several road intersections identified by the department in Srinagar and Jammu. But the proposals, they said, were gathering dust as nobody was serious in having the signals installed.
Sources said a company which deals with installation of traffic signals had told the Traffic Department that it would install them free of cost, provided it was given the advertisement rights. “The company wanted to install its advertisements near the traffic signal spots. But the bureaucracy-bug ate the proposal,” they said.
Interestingly, the Traffic Department has called for an immediate installation of the electronic traffic signal in the state for effective traffic management. “The traffic police feels handicapped to effectively regulate traffic in the two cities, especially at the road intersections.
It has been observed, both at national and international level, that the effective mechanism to regulate traffic on the intersections is done by electronic traffic signals. The installation of traffic signals on the road intersections ensures, besides the volume and speed control, the saving of manpower, which ultimately leads to efficient regulation and effective safety on road intersections,” writes MA Shah in the Traffic Info 2010, the Department’s annual publication.
It adds: “Based on this principle, the whole world has switched over completely to electronic traffic regulation. Thus installing traffic signals in Jammu and Kashmir is a necessity to improve the traffic management on its roads.”
The department has conducted a survey of cities of Srinagar and Jammu, identifying 67 and 55 road intersections respectively, which require electronic signals for smooth traffic regulations. But the exercise has not yielded any concrete results, as proposals with regard to traffic regulation have allegedly been shelved by the PWD.
A senior traffic police official said it would not take more than Rs 10 crores to get the electronic traffic system installed in the two cities. “But the question is who will bell the cat? The project has become a victim of petty politics between the R&B, Traffic Department and parties that intend to install the system,” the official, pleading anonymity, said. “We had this system. But that time it was perhaps discarded because there was no power back up to the traffic lights. Today we have the power and we can install the system easily. You can see a quantum decrease in road accidents.”
When contacted, the Minister of State for R&B, Javed Ahmad Dar, said he was yet to see a proposal from the Traffic Department regarding the traffic signal installation. “We will install it. But the proposal has to come from the traffic department. And then we have to see its funding aspect also. Who’ll fund it? I think the traffic police have money to spend on the project. We can act as an executing agency,” he told Greater Kashmir
Noorani Proposal and Analysis
The author conducts an assessment of the recent proposal by Mr. A. G. Noorani, a prominent lawyer and author in India well known for his sympathies towards separatists and militants in Kashmir
Consensus on Kashmir
(A Response Mr. A. G. Noorani’s Recent Commentary Appended at the Bottom)
Vijay K. Sazawal, Ph.D.
A few weeks back Mr. Noorani, a well known Indian writer and lawyer, wrote a commentary outlining his thoughts on resolving the Kashmir issue. Mr. Noorani’s sympathies with Kashmiri separatists are well known, and he is known to routinely challenge Indian political and diplomatic position on the future of Jammu and Kashmir.
The question that is being asked is, how do Kashmiris feel about his latest commentary. I must publicly acknowledge that this is the first time I am actually reading any of his commentaries with a keen eye since I am preparing my review remarks.
Probably the least controversial statement in the whole paper is the lead sentence that, “the India-Pakistan peace process must have a Kashmir settlement as its clear goal.” There is no denying that people of Kashmir – those ordinary secular and peaceful Kashmiris without any vested interest – would like the issue to be resolved once for all so that politicians and demagogues have no choice but to focus their zeal and energy on things that are really important for peace and prosperity.
Almost everything that follows the lead sentence in Mr. Noorani’s article is a bundle of unorganized one-liners meant to obfuscate any clarity in his thinking. But if one actually follows Mr. Noorani’s thought process through a torturous path to its final destination, the following are his main points:
- Do not trash the message, even though you may want to shoot the messenger (General Musharraf). Mr. Noorani advocates Kashmiris should accept the “Musharraf Plan.”
Here are the reasons he gives:
- Because plebiscite/self-determination is a dead option ever since Pakistani Prime Minister stopped insisting on it in February 1958, and Mr. Noon was no traitor. The UN mediator on Kashmir himself had called the UN resolutions obsolete as early as April 1957.
- Because there is a “consensus” among Kashmiris, reflected in Mr. Noorani’s belief that both Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and the United Jihad Council (UJC) supremo have endorsed the “Musharraf Plan” way back in 1997.
Along the way, Mr. Noorani finds praise for Dr. Manmohan Singh of the centralist Indian National Congress (INC), lambasts the right wing Bharti Janata Party (BJP), though he also says somewhere that Mr. Vajpayee of the BJP started the peace dialogue with Pakistan and thinks that the BJP wants to conclude such a deal when it is in power.
Mr. Noorani’s commentary is interesting for two other reasons – first, he affirms that Pakistani general public opinion always dictates Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policies (interesting given how Pakistan’s military plays “cricket” with Pakistan’s Constitution every time there is a coup), and second, he completely ignores Mr. Ali Shah Geelani, the proverbial 600# gorilla in Kashmiri politics. It is possible that to Mr. Noorani, Mr. Geelani and the UJC are the one and the same. Certainly, he will not be alone in reaching that conclusion.
Do such contradictions put the Noorani proposal in the “DOA” (dead-on-arrival) category? Probably not. And here is why.
The “Manmohan Singh Formula” (which is how many Indian officials have described the “Musharraf Plan” to me, especially since the proposal includes the Indian Prime Minister’s demand that the present boundaries in J&K cannot be redrawn) does have some merits. I think the “building blocks” for the final solution probably exist within those contours. How that will happen and in what order is key to achieving a successful and sustainable closure.
But first the two countries must reach an overarching understanding on how to build mutual respect and trust to allow a win-win closure on the Kashmir issue. So the real question one has to ask is why would Pakistani military-mullah establishment ever accept a solution which comes nowhere near its stated goal of full integration of Jammu and Kashmir into Pakistan (much like the way the Northern Areas were incorporated), and also leaves India diplomatically and politically stronger by creating conditions for India to acquire a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)? For armed radical Islamists like Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Salahuddin, etc., who are trying their best to tear Kashmir apart and cut into the belly of India by raising mayhem, anarchy and indulging in terroristic acts, what benefit would they gain from seeing the two countries come to a peaceful settlement? How will Pakistan give up its “strategic assets” knowing that such assets do more for the preservation and well being of the military-mullah establishment, rather than ordinary Pakistani citizens and its civil society?
Even in the Indian side of Kashmir, there is a vested lobby that has financially and politically done so well (literally feeding off the trough of the national Treasury and by deceitful exploitation of Kashmir’s pristine beauty and resources) during the insurgency and turmoil that it is practically impossible to believe that such a powerful lobby will have a change in heart and close its “shops”, especially when there are sections of the civil society under their control used primarily to glorify their spurious power and authority. For example, one word out of the mouth of the “Sultan of Hartals” in the valley easily converts into a headline in nearly all daily newspapers without question or reservation. Can such a society ever change for the good of “aam admi’?
But if we can get past those nearly insurmountable barriers, the next challenge will be in building a consensus. Everyone that I have spoken to on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC) believes that the process of creating consensus will require a total rejection of the gun culture. The trust deficit that exists today between the two countries will not go away until the state support for waging jihad in Kashmir is withdrawn by the military-mullah establishment in Pakistan. State and Indian security forces have to clean up their act as well, but so long as the violence is within the Indian side a of Kashmir, security forces should, and must, enforce law and order which is usually never without collateral grief. So we are simply wasting time, causing unjustifiable deaths, prolonging misery and denying hope to Kashmiris until the gun culture continues to exist in Kashmir.
Once the ground settles down to a peaceful and trusting relationship between Pakistan and India, I strongly feel that the “Manmohan Singh Formula” and the “Musharraf Plan” will converge into a reasonable “Kashmir Resolution Program” (KRP) of action. Demilitarization by national armies on both sides will be the last step in that process and an affirmation that all constituents have accepted the KRP and the program of peaceful co-habitation and mutual tolerance has taken roots. I have had enough personal interaction with the valley based civil society in the last few years to know that once India and Pakistan agree to a KRP, and that program is also endorsed by the UNSC, most Kashmiris will consider the issue settled. The UNSC part poses a challenge that should not be belittled in its importance, since in my conversations with major powers – and I have spoken to many senior western and Russian diplomats and officials – UNSC will demand that minorities and the disfranchised in Kashmir are guaranteed equal constituent treatment and receive benefits that will ensure Kashmir’s future as a multi-religious, multi-cultural and a pluralistic society. Even then there will be a small and vocal Kashmiri population that will never accept anything less than their own demands, but for all practical purposes it will be a done deal.
How soon this process can get kick started depends upon how soon both countries can get serious in resolving the Kashmir issue. Currently, it is mostly rhetoric and theatre.
(Dr. Vijay Sazawal, a Kashmir born policy analyst specializing in the U.S. nuclear policy and South Asian security, lives in Washington, DC and manages the website: www.KashmirForum.org, and a Blog.)
______________________________________________________
Consensus on Kashmir
By A.G. Noorani
The India-Pakistan peace process must have a Kashmir settlement as its clear goal; but no settlement will work unless it is supported by a domestic consensus within each of the three parties — India, Pakistan and Kashmir.
All Kashmiris, separatists and unionists, are now agreed that the future of Kashmir cannot be decided without the concurrence of Pakistan. In India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is sworn to oppose any initiative by the present government on any major issue, whether domestic or foreign. In 2004 L.K. Advani asserted that the Hindus would trust the BJP alone to forge an accord with Pakistan. In 2007 he and Atal Behari Vajpayee asked Pakistani visitors to wait till the BJP returned to power; it would give better terms. Both are false. The country will back Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who received a renewed mandate in 2009 which ends in 2014.
In Pakistan resentment against Gen Pervez Musharraf has in some minds rubbed off on his four-point proposal; understandably but not rationally. But, Nawaz Sharif has a formidable record of support for an entente with India and a settlement of Kashmir based on a fair compromise. While in office as prime minister, he told visiting Indian publicists: “We will all have to give up something. India will have to step back; Pakistan will have to step back; and so will the Kashmiris.” He clearly envisaged a compromise. In opposition he told an Indian correspondent on Dec 28, 1995 that he would “support to the hilt” any sincere effort by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to improve relations with India.
He repeated his commitment at least twice during the election campaign in February 1997. “This is now a part of my election platform,” he told his colleague Sartaj Aziz. As premier he met Prime Minister I.K. Gujral in Male in May 1997. The upshot was the joint statement of June 23, 1997 on a composite dialogue.
In 1998, a BJP regime came to power in India. Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Vajpayee met in New York in September and decided to launch a back-channel. At the Lahore summit in February 1999 they decided to accelerate it. They agreed also that neither side would reiterate its extreme position — UN resolutions and Kashmir as a non-negotiable issue. Kargil flooded the channel.
What is the status of the Kashmir dispute today? Since 1990 even the US ceased to talk of the UN resolutions. In February 1958 Prime Minister Feroz Khan Noon met the US envoy to the UN, Henry Cabot Lodge, in Karachi. Ambassador James M. Langley recorded: “Noon made no mention of a plebiscite and it seemed to me that he was clearly thinking of a compromise which would provide for a territorial division between India and Pakistan.”
Noon was no traitor. A few months earlier on April 29, 1957, the UN mediator on Kashmir Gunnar Myrdal had, in his report, pronounced those resolutions as virtually obsolete: “The situation with which they were to cope has tended to change.” That was 50 years ago. On March 23, 1962 Ayub Khan was prepared to drop plebiscite if India offered an alternative. The Z.A. Bhutto–Swaran Singh talks (1962-3) centred on a partition line in Kashmir; not on plebiscite.
This is the reality which Nawaz Sharif faced in 1998 and Gen Pervez Musharraf at Agra in 2001. Any settlement of Kashmir must meet one clear test and conform to four limitations. It must be acceptable to all the three parties. The limits? First, no Indian government can accept de-accession of Kashmir and survive even for an hour. Secondly, no government in Pakistan can accept the Line of Control as an international boundary and survive, either. Thirdly, nor will the Kashmiris submit to the partition; and lastly they insist on self-rule.
All old notions of a ‘final settlement’ of the dispute come up against those four hurdles, a burden history has imposed. Four points bypass them. They are, as Manmohan Singh said, on May 2, 2008, “a non-territorial solution”; an agreed arrangement reviewable after 10 or 15 years. We no longer squabble over sovereignty; but proceed to improve the situation on the ground by concrete steps so that in actual practice the concerns of each side are met and the four limits are not violated either.
How? The first of the four points envisages that since “borders cannot be redrawn”, we can, as Manmohan Singh said on March 24, 2006, “work towards making them irrelevant — towards making them just lines on a map”. In effect the state is reunited, de facto though not de jure. Men, goods, and literature will move freely across the LoC. The Hizb leader Syed Salahuddin will return to his home in Srinagar. The entire scenario will change radically, to the benefit of Kashmiri.
Especially since this will be coupled with the three other points — demilitarisation, self-governance and a joint mechanism. Manmohan Singh described them as “institutional arrangements” . Pakistan will have a say on matters like water management. This arrangement will grow with time, and is open to improvement. For instance an All J&K Assembly, comprising legislators, can be set up as a purely consultative body on matters other than defence and politics. Precise arrangements can be stipulated to ensure free movement.
The former foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri has authoritatively established that such an accord was reached. Is it to be discarded because it bears the Musharraf tag? No responsible parent rejects a proposal for their daughter’s marriage because he or she disapproves of the boy’s father; especially if he is separated from the father, the daughter is none too young and other proposals are not in sight.
Syed Salahuddin endorsed it as a ‘first step’ on Feb 27, 2007, so did Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on March 20, 2007. Time is fast running out. Such an opportunity to clinch matters may not occur for long. As Mao advised Nixon on Feb 21, 1972, “You must seize the hour and seize the day.”
Consensus on Kashmir
(A Response Mr. A. G. Noorani’s Recent Commentary Appended at the Bottom)
Vijay K. Sazawal, Ph.D.
A few weeks back Mr. Noorani, a well known Indian writer and lawyer, wrote a commentary outlining his thoughts on resolving the Kashmir issue. Mr. Noorani’s sympathies with Kashmiri separatists are well known, and he is known to routinely challenge Indian political and diplomatic position on the future of Jammu and Kashmir.
The question that is being asked is, how do Kashmiris feel about his latest commentary. I must publicly acknowledge that this is the first time I am actually reading any of his commentaries with a keen eye since I am preparing my review remarks.
Probably the least controversial statement in the whole paper is the lead sentence that, “the India-Pakistan peace process must have a Kashmir settlement as its clear goal.” There is no denying that people of Kashmir – those ordinary secular and peaceful Kashmiris without any vested interest – would like the issue to be resolved once for all so that politicians and demagogues have no choice but to focus their zeal and energy on things that are really important for peace and prosperity.
Almost everything that follows the lead sentence in Mr. Noorani’s article is a bundle of unorganized one-liners meant to obfuscate any clarity in his thinking. But if one actually follows Mr. Noorani’s thought process through a torturous path to its final destination, the following are his main points:
- Do not trash the message, even though you may want to shoot the messenger (General Musharraf). Mr. Noorani advocates Kashmiris should accept the “Musharraf Plan.”
Here are the reasons he gives:
- Because plebiscite/self-determination is a dead option ever since Pakistani Prime Minister stopped insisting on it in February 1958, and Mr. Noon was no traitor. The UN mediator on Kashmir himself had called the UN resolutions obsolete as early as April 1957.
- Because there is a “consensus” among Kashmiris, reflected in Mr. Noorani’s belief that both Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and the United Jihad Council (UJC) supremo have endorsed the “Musharraf Plan” way back in 1997.
Along the way, Mr. Noorani finds praise for Dr. Manmohan Singh of the centralist Indian National Congress (INC), lambasts the right wing Bharti Janata Party (BJP), though he also says somewhere that Mr. Vajpayee of the BJP started the peace dialogue with Pakistan and thinks that the BJP wants to conclude such a deal when it is in power.
Mr. Noorani’s commentary is interesting for two other reasons – first, he affirms that Pakistani general public opinion always dictates Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policies (interesting given how Pakistan’s military plays “cricket” with Pakistan’s Constitution every time there is a coup), and second, he completely ignores Mr. Ali Shah Geelani, the proverbial 600# gorilla in Kashmiri politics. It is possible that to Mr. Noorani, Mr. Geelani and the UJC are the one and the same. Certainly, he will not be alone in reaching that conclusion.
Do such contradictions put the Noorani proposal in the “DOA” (dead-on-arrival) category? Probably not. And here is why.
The “Manmohan Singh Formula” (which is how many Indian officials have described the “Musharraf Plan” to me, especially since the proposal includes the Indian Prime Minister’s demand that the present boundaries in J&K cannot be redrawn) does have some merits. I think the “building blocks” for the final solution probably exist within those contours. How that will happen and in what order is key to achieving a successful and sustainable closure.
But first the two countries must reach an overarching understanding on how to build mutual respect and trust to allow a win-win closure on the Kashmir issue. So the real question one has to ask is why would Pakistani military-mullah establishment ever accept a solution which comes nowhere near its stated goal of full integration of Jammu and Kashmir into Pakistan (much like the way the Northern Areas were incorporated), and also leaves India diplomatically and politically stronger by creating conditions for India to acquire a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)? For armed radical Islamists like Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Salahuddin, etc., who are trying their best to tear Kashmir apart and cut into the belly of India by raising mayhem, anarchy and indulging in terroristic acts, what benefit would they gain from seeing the two countries come to a peaceful settlement? How will Pakistan give up its “strategic assets” knowing that such assets do more for the preservation and well being of the military-mullah establishment, rather than ordinary Pakistani citizens and its civil society?
Even in the Indian side of Kashmir, there is a vested lobby that has financially and politically done so well (literally feeding off the trough of the national Treasury and by deceitful exploitation of Kashmir’s pristine beauty and resources) during the insurgency and turmoil that it is practically impossible to believe that such a powerful lobby will have a change in heart and close its “shops”, especially when there are sections of the civil society under their control used primarily to glorify their spurious power and authority. For example, one word out of the mouth of the “Sultan of Hartals” in the valley easily converts into a headline in nearly all daily newspapers without question or reservation. Can such a society ever change for the good of “aam admi’?
But if we can get past those nearly insurmountable barriers, the next challenge will be in building a consensus. Everyone that I have spoken to on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC) believes that the process of creating consensus will require a total rejection of the gun culture. The trust deficit that exists today between the two countries will not go away until the state support for waging jihad in Kashmir is withdrawn by the military-mullah establishment in Pakistan. State and Indian security forces have to clean up their act as well, but so long as the violence is within the Indian side a of Kashmir, security forces should, and must, enforce law and order which is usually never without collateral grief. So we are simply wasting time, causing unjustifiable deaths, prolonging misery and denying hope to Kashmiris until the gun culture continues to exist in Kashmir.
Once the ground settles down to a peaceful and trusting relationship between Pakistan and India, I strongly feel that the “Manmohan Singh Formula” and the “Musharraf Plan” will converge into a reasonable “Kashmir Resolution Program” (KRP) of action. Demilitarization by national armies on both sides will be the last step in that process and an affirmation that all constituents have accepted the KRP and the program of peaceful co-habitation and mutual tolerance has taken roots. I have had enough personal interaction with the valley based civil society in the last few years to know that once India and Pakistan agree to a KRP, and that program is also endorsed by the UNSC, most Kashmiris will consider the issue settled. The UNSC part poses a challenge that should not be belittled in its importance, since in my conversations with major powers – and I have spoken to many senior western and Russian diplomats and officials – UNSC will demand that minorities and the disfranchised in Kashmir are guaranteed equal constituent treatment and receive benefits that will ensure Kashmir’s future as a multi-religious, multi-cultural and a pluralistic society. Even then there will be a small and vocal Kashmiri population that will never accept anything less than their own demands, but for all practical purposes it will be a done deal.
How soon this process can get kick started depends upon how soon both countries can get serious in resolving the Kashmir issue. Currently, it is mostly rhetoric and theatre.
(Dr. Vijay Sazawal, a Kashmir born policy analyst specializing in the U.S. nuclear policy and South Asian security, lives in Washington, DC and manages the website: www.KashmirForum.org, and a Blog.)
______________________________________________________
Consensus on Kashmir
By A.G. Noorani
The India-Pakistan peace process must have a Kashmir settlement as its clear goal; but no settlement will work unless it is supported by a domestic consensus within each of the three parties — India, Pakistan and Kashmir.
All Kashmiris, separatists and unionists, are now agreed that the future of Kashmir cannot be decided without the concurrence of Pakistan. In India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is sworn to oppose any initiative by the present government on any major issue, whether domestic or foreign. In 2004 L.K. Advani asserted that the Hindus would trust the BJP alone to forge an accord with Pakistan. In 2007 he and Atal Behari Vajpayee asked Pakistani visitors to wait till the BJP returned to power; it would give better terms. Both are false. The country will back Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who received a renewed mandate in 2009 which ends in 2014.
In Pakistan resentment against Gen Pervez Musharraf has in some minds rubbed off on his four-point proposal; understandably but not rationally. But, Nawaz Sharif has a formidable record of support for an entente with India and a settlement of Kashmir based on a fair compromise. While in office as prime minister, he told visiting Indian publicists: “We will all have to give up something. India will have to step back; Pakistan will have to step back; and so will the Kashmiris.” He clearly envisaged a compromise. In opposition he told an Indian correspondent on Dec 28, 1995 that he would “support to the hilt” any sincere effort by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to improve relations with India.
He repeated his commitment at least twice during the election campaign in February 1997. “This is now a part of my election platform,” he told his colleague Sartaj Aziz. As premier he met Prime Minister I.K. Gujral in Male in May 1997. The upshot was the joint statement of June 23, 1997 on a composite dialogue.
In 1998, a BJP regime came to power in India. Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Vajpayee met in New York in September and decided to launch a back-channel. At the Lahore summit in February 1999 they decided to accelerate it. They agreed also that neither side would reiterate its extreme position — UN resolutions and Kashmir as a non-negotiable issue. Kargil flooded the channel.
What is the status of the Kashmir dispute today? Since 1990 even the US ceased to talk of the UN resolutions. In February 1958 Prime Minister Feroz Khan Noon met the US envoy to the UN, Henry Cabot Lodge, in Karachi. Ambassador James M. Langley recorded: “Noon made no mention of a plebiscite and it seemed to me that he was clearly thinking of a compromise which would provide for a territorial division between India and Pakistan.”
Noon was no traitor. A few months earlier on April 29, 1957, the UN mediator on Kashmir Gunnar Myrdal had, in his report, pronounced those resolutions as virtually obsolete: “The situation with which they were to cope has tended to change.” That was 50 years ago. On March 23, 1962 Ayub Khan was prepared to drop plebiscite if India offered an alternative. The Z.A. Bhutto–Swaran Singh talks (1962-3) centred on a partition line in Kashmir; not on plebiscite.
This is the reality which Nawaz Sharif faced in 1998 and Gen Pervez Musharraf at Agra in 2001. Any settlement of Kashmir must meet one clear test and conform to four limitations. It must be acceptable to all the three parties. The limits? First, no Indian government can accept de-accession of Kashmir and survive even for an hour. Secondly, no government in Pakistan can accept the Line of Control as an international boundary and survive, either. Thirdly, nor will the Kashmiris submit to the partition; and lastly they insist on self-rule.
All old notions of a ‘final settlement’ of the dispute come up against those four hurdles, a burden history has imposed. Four points bypass them. They are, as Manmohan Singh said, on May 2, 2008, “a non-territorial solution”; an agreed arrangement reviewable after 10 or 15 years. We no longer squabble over sovereignty; but proceed to improve the situation on the ground by concrete steps so that in actual practice the concerns of each side are met and the four limits are not violated either.
How? The first of the four points envisages that since “borders cannot be redrawn”, we can, as Manmohan Singh said on March 24, 2006, “work towards making them irrelevant — towards making them just lines on a map”. In effect the state is reunited, de facto though not de jure. Men, goods, and literature will move freely across the LoC. The Hizb leader Syed Salahuddin will return to his home in Srinagar. The entire scenario will change radically, to the benefit of Kashmiri.
Especially since this will be coupled with the three other points — demilitarisation, self-governance and a joint mechanism. Manmohan Singh described them as “institutional arrangements” . Pakistan will have a say on matters like water management. This arrangement will grow with time, and is open to improvement. For instance an All J&K Assembly, comprising legislators, can be set up as a purely consultative body on matters other than defence and politics. Precise arrangements can be stipulated to ensure free movement.
The former foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri has authoritatively established that such an accord was reached. Is it to be discarded because it bears the Musharraf tag? No responsible parent rejects a proposal for their daughter’s marriage because he or she disapproves of the boy’s father; especially if he is separated from the father, the daughter is none too young and other proposals are not in sight.
Syed Salahuddin endorsed it as a ‘first step’ on Feb 27, 2007, so did Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on March 20, 2007. Time is fast running out. Such an opportunity to clinch matters may not occur for long. As Mao advised Nixon on Feb 21, 1972, “You must seize the hour and seize the day.”
J&K Government's Precarious Budgetary Situation
The sad fact is that 59% of the J&K State Budget is provided by the Indian Tax-payer and 14% is borrowed from financial institutions.
J&K’s Budgetary Reliance on New Delhi Mounting
Syed Junaid Hashmi (Kashmir Times)
Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir government’s precarious budgetary position has taken further dip with mounting wage bill, rising graph of non-plan expenditure and almost absolute reliance on New Delhi for financial requirements.
The total budget size of the state for year 2009-10 was Rs. 22885 crore, of which own revenues of the state including share of central taxes was around Rs.6249 crore i.e. 27.31 percent against which ‘central transfers’ contribution was Rs. 13432 crore i.e. 58.69 percent. The rest 14 percent came from borrowings and capital receipts.
Similarly, state expended around of Rs. 15672 crore on non-plan activities which included interest, salaries, pension, power purchase and repayment of loans. Besides, an amount of Rs.7, 213 crore was spent on developmental activities. This includes funds spent on projects which are being developed under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) for Jammu and Kashmir.
A customary look at these figures indicates that New Delhi funds 72.69 percent of budgetary expanses of Jammu and Kashmir while state’s contribution is meager 27.31 percent. A report of state finance ministry on macroeconomic and medium term fiscal policy has brought forth this spine chilling and dismal picture of state finances.
The reports say that comparing the revenue flow of the state vis-à-vis Revenue expenditure for last 5 years, although the state was having revenue surplus due to central devolutions being revised in the ratio of 90 percent grant and 10 percent loan, fiscal deficit has increased from Rs.1052 crore for 2002-03 to Rs.2749 crore in 2008-09.
Report has cautioned that deterioration of fiscal deficit from 6.6 percent of GSDP in the year 2006-07, to 7.9 percent of GSDP in 2008-09 is unsustainable and requires immediate corrective measures. It has recommended that multi-pronged strategy in terms of mobilization of additional resources, greater tax and non-tax collections, cost of recovery of user charges, expenditure compression particularly establishment related is required to be put in place.
Pointing towards the fiscal position of Jammu and Kashmir, report maintains that there has seen a steady deterioration in the finances of the state through the 1990s due to number of reasons including rising cost of salary and pension bills, burgeoning hidden subsidies including power deficit, rising interest liabilities and loan repayments. It further maintains that deterioration has been much sharper since 1995-96 onwards, due to deficit on account of non-tax revenue and steep increase in salary bill occasioned by the fifth pay commission recommendations.
The report has envisaged further deterioration in the financial position after the thorough implementation of report of 6th Pay Commission. The report has said that Jammu and Kashmir government’s own revenue including share of central taxes to GSDP at current prices ratio is 16.32 percent. It maintains that this has shown slight improvement over years and relatively higher rate of growth of tax receipts is likely to be sustained because of proposed introduction of unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 2011-12.
The present tax revenues to GSDP ratio stands at 11.41 percent. Moreover, report admits that against total non-tax revenue estimates (RE) of Rs.1294, power revenue target of Rs.1002 crores forms 77 percent of estimated non-tax revenues. But referring to finance accounts of 2008-09, the report says that power revenue realization was only Rs.630 crore as against target of Rs.922 crore.
The report has outlined the fact that over the past decade and a half, there has been alarming increase in government expenditure on non-contributory pensions and in percentage terms, outgo on pension has witnessed 27 fold increase over the period from 1991-92 to 2008-09. And due to financial constraints to which it would have been exposed in times to come both on account of rising cost of pensions in the wake of successive pay commissions and demographic transition in increasing number of aged persons, state finance ministry introduced NPF for fresh entrants from January 1, 2010 on the pattern of central government.
J&K’s Budgetary Reliance on New Delhi Mounting
Syed Junaid Hashmi (Kashmir Times)
Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir government’s precarious budgetary position has taken further dip with mounting wage bill, rising graph of non-plan expenditure and almost absolute reliance on New Delhi for financial requirements.
The total budget size of the state for year 2009-10 was Rs. 22885 crore, of which own revenues of the state including share of central taxes was around Rs.6249 crore i.e. 27.31 percent against which ‘central transfers’ contribution was Rs. 13432 crore i.e. 58.69 percent. The rest 14 percent came from borrowings and capital receipts.
Similarly, state expended around of Rs. 15672 crore on non-plan activities which included interest, salaries, pension, power purchase and repayment of loans. Besides, an amount of Rs.7, 213 crore was spent on developmental activities. This includes funds spent on projects which are being developed under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) for Jammu and Kashmir.
A customary look at these figures indicates that New Delhi funds 72.69 percent of budgetary expanses of Jammu and Kashmir while state’s contribution is meager 27.31 percent. A report of state finance ministry on macroeconomic and medium term fiscal policy has brought forth this spine chilling and dismal picture of state finances.
The reports say that comparing the revenue flow of the state vis-à-vis Revenue expenditure for last 5 years, although the state was having revenue surplus due to central devolutions being revised in the ratio of 90 percent grant and 10 percent loan, fiscal deficit has increased from Rs.1052 crore for 2002-03 to Rs.2749 crore in 2008-09.
Report has cautioned that deterioration of fiscal deficit from 6.6 percent of GSDP in the year 2006-07, to 7.9 percent of GSDP in 2008-09 is unsustainable and requires immediate corrective measures. It has recommended that multi-pronged strategy in terms of mobilization of additional resources, greater tax and non-tax collections, cost of recovery of user charges, expenditure compression particularly establishment related is required to be put in place.
Pointing towards the fiscal position of Jammu and Kashmir, report maintains that there has seen a steady deterioration in the finances of the state through the 1990s due to number of reasons including rising cost of salary and pension bills, burgeoning hidden subsidies including power deficit, rising interest liabilities and loan repayments. It further maintains that deterioration has been much sharper since 1995-96 onwards, due to deficit on account of non-tax revenue and steep increase in salary bill occasioned by the fifth pay commission recommendations.
The report has envisaged further deterioration in the financial position after the thorough implementation of report of 6th Pay Commission. The report has said that Jammu and Kashmir government’s own revenue including share of central taxes to GSDP at current prices ratio is 16.32 percent. It maintains that this has shown slight improvement over years and relatively higher rate of growth of tax receipts is likely to be sustained because of proposed introduction of unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 2011-12.
The present tax revenues to GSDP ratio stands at 11.41 percent. Moreover, report admits that against total non-tax revenue estimates (RE) of Rs.1294, power revenue target of Rs.1002 crores forms 77 percent of estimated non-tax revenues. But referring to finance accounts of 2008-09, the report says that power revenue realization was only Rs.630 crore as against target of Rs.922 crore.
The report has outlined the fact that over the past decade and a half, there has been alarming increase in government expenditure on non-contributory pensions and in percentage terms, outgo on pension has witnessed 27 fold increase over the period from 1991-92 to 2008-09. And due to financial constraints to which it would have been exposed in times to come both on account of rising cost of pensions in the wake of successive pay commissions and demographic transition in increasing number of aged persons, state finance ministry introduced NPF for fresh entrants from January 1, 2010 on the pattern of central government.
Meritocracy and Kashmir - and Never the Twain Shall Meet
Tauseef laments about how the "Open Merit" (OM) system works against hard work and fair play
I belong to the OM
Shah Tauseef Armand
I belong to the most prestigious category. With reservation of 50%, Open Merit (OM) represents the largest category in competitive exams in J&K however, with meagre chances to get in.
"I couldn't make it because I belong to OM" is the response when dropped from any selection list. The agonising thoughts of 3 or 4 points by which he missed the train of success haunt him a million times throughout the clock. Sweet dreams change into nightmares and depression colonises the mind.
His below average friends belonging to different reservation categories who never performed better than him even in the competitive exams are in above average professional colleges. The endless reservation categories in J&K crush the dreams of talented youth who are caged in OM category. My OM friend was dropped at securing 180 points while my another friend was selected after securing 141 points because he was from reserved category. While my category friend regularly goes to medical college, my OM friend goes regularly goes to psychiatrist. To complicate the already complicated situation some category students fall into OM, throwing OM students out of crowded helicopter to land in despair and if they themselves fall out they are safe because the parachute tagged with "reservation" saves them. Some categories like STGB require students only to appear in the examination to be selected because they are in "no competition" zone.
Most "Residents of Backward Areas (RBA)" students belong to economically forward families. Police and army personnel make us feel more insecure by thrashing our meritorious OM students by weapons like CDP and JKPM reservations. Actual line of control (ALC) quota crosses all lines of justice to reach the reserved seats after dispersing deserving students out of the field. To fill the gap in the sea of injustice, river of "Other Schedule Caste (OSC)"quota was joined to existing (SC) quota. Carom players equipped with "sports category" are becoming doctors and engineers faster and real players are pushed out of the board.
What pains most is to see the financially sound but academically poor students entering professional colleges wearing the hats of reservation transmitted to them from their settled parents as a part of their heredity. After "reservation facilitated" acquisition of higher positions, most such persons settle in cities, giving their children quality education in prestigious schools, which many OM students never dreamt about, and when the judgement day comes, "reservation certificate" balances all their deficiencies and mar all the efficiencies."Don't you think it is the murder of justice?" Rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.
The assault on OM candidates don't end here. The crises of reservation continue at the Post Graduate (PG) level and at job seeking examinations to punish the OM students who managed to cross the battle field unarmed.
A question to my non OM brothers and sisters, ‘after pulling the selfishness out of your brain, do you feel your reservation in PG Entrances and PSC exams is justified?" After completing the course under one roof with category students, are OM students fed with superior knowledge or skills to put them in stress and strain?
Once together in college, if OM and reservation students are taught by same tutors in same classrooms on the same bench, share same laboratory, read same books, face same examinations; then why is inequality restored in PG and PSC exams?
This story of injustice requires million papers and pens. Who is responsible for this grave injustice?
Yes, of course the government of India in general and government of J&K in particular. Where else on earth do we have such a score of category reservations?
Sheikh has control his reign of power by trapping major sections of people by such favours. This menace gifted to our state by politicians is a cunning tactic to keep the benefited people as a reservoir of votes for elections. To cut this tree of injustice seems impossible as its roots are deep seated and well protected by care taking administrators who have reached the apex positions by ropes of reservation.
I agree that many classes of our society are backward and poor, who can’t keep pace with other classes because of financial conditions. But government never wants to provide quality education to poor classes because it costs money and in turn pushes such academically poor students into higher professional carriers free of cost after slaughtering the deserving ones. Their need is quality education and financial support not reservation. People with categories are our own blood because we originated from one race and government is deepening the roots of casteism.
I belong to the OM
Shah Tauseef Armand
I belong to the most prestigious category. With reservation of 50%, Open Merit (OM) represents the largest category in competitive exams in J&K however, with meagre chances to get in.
"I couldn't make it because I belong to OM" is the response when dropped from any selection list. The agonising thoughts of 3 or 4 points by which he missed the train of success haunt him a million times throughout the clock. Sweet dreams change into nightmares and depression colonises the mind.
His below average friends belonging to different reservation categories who never performed better than him even in the competitive exams are in above average professional colleges. The endless reservation categories in J&K crush the dreams of talented youth who are caged in OM category. My OM friend was dropped at securing 180 points while my another friend was selected after securing 141 points because he was from reserved category. While my category friend regularly goes to medical college, my OM friend goes regularly goes to psychiatrist. To complicate the already complicated situation some category students fall into OM, throwing OM students out of crowded helicopter to land in despair and if they themselves fall out they are safe because the parachute tagged with "reservation" saves them. Some categories like STGB require students only to appear in the examination to be selected because they are in "no competition" zone.
Most "Residents of Backward Areas (RBA)" students belong to economically forward families. Police and army personnel make us feel more insecure by thrashing our meritorious OM students by weapons like CDP and JKPM reservations. Actual line of control (ALC) quota crosses all lines of justice to reach the reserved seats after dispersing deserving students out of the field. To fill the gap in the sea of injustice, river of "Other Schedule Caste (OSC)"quota was joined to existing (SC) quota. Carom players equipped with "sports category" are becoming doctors and engineers faster and real players are pushed out of the board.
What pains most is to see the financially sound but academically poor students entering professional colleges wearing the hats of reservation transmitted to them from their settled parents as a part of their heredity. After "reservation facilitated" acquisition of higher positions, most such persons settle in cities, giving their children quality education in prestigious schools, which many OM students never dreamt about, and when the judgement day comes, "reservation certificate" balances all their deficiencies and mar all the efficiencies."Don't you think it is the murder of justice?" Rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.
The assault on OM candidates don't end here. The crises of reservation continue at the Post Graduate (PG) level and at job seeking examinations to punish the OM students who managed to cross the battle field unarmed.
A question to my non OM brothers and sisters, ‘after pulling the selfishness out of your brain, do you feel your reservation in PG Entrances and PSC exams is justified?" After completing the course under one roof with category students, are OM students fed with superior knowledge or skills to put them in stress and strain?
Once together in college, if OM and reservation students are taught by same tutors in same classrooms on the same bench, share same laboratory, read same books, face same examinations; then why is inequality restored in PG and PSC exams?
This story of injustice requires million papers and pens. Who is responsible for this grave injustice?
Yes, of course the government of India in general and government of J&K in particular. Where else on earth do we have such a score of category reservations?
Sheikh has control his reign of power by trapping major sections of people by such favours. This menace gifted to our state by politicians is a cunning tactic to keep the benefited people as a reservoir of votes for elections. To cut this tree of injustice seems impossible as its roots are deep seated and well protected by care taking administrators who have reached the apex positions by ropes of reservation.
I agree that many classes of our society are backward and poor, who can’t keep pace with other classes because of financial conditions. But government never wants to provide quality education to poor classes because it costs money and in turn pushes such academically poor students into higher professional carriers free of cost after slaughtering the deserving ones. Their need is quality education and financial support not reservation. People with categories are our own blood because we originated from one race and government is deepening the roots of casteism.
Srinagar was the First, Pahalgam is the Next
The nexus between politicians (pro and anti India) and the local land mafia is destroying Kashmir's pristine beauty
Illegal Constructions Devour Pahalgam’s Fragile Ecology
Ishfaq Mir (Greater Kashmir)
Srinagar: Rampant illegal constructions at Pahalgam continue
to ravage its fragile ecology and environs, even as the officials at
the Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA) express “helplessness” in
preventing the Nature from being plundered by people with high
political connections.
Sources in the PDA said some influential people enjoying political
patronage continue to encroach the land and are erecting structures on
the fragile forest land in violation of the Master Plan.
“Three months ago, five influential hoteliers had made some deviations
to the approved building plan while repairing their hotel buildings or
erecting new structures. They were served notices by the PDA, warning
them to stop the construction but none of them so far has rectified
the deviations,” sources said.
On January 9 last, PDA issued notices to all the five persons vide Nos
EE/PDA/2423-26, EE/PDA/2435-38, EE/PDA/2415-18, EE/PDA/2419-22 and
EE/PDA/2427-30.
“As reported by the Assistant Executive Engineer, you have illegally
made some deviations to the approved building. In this connection you
are directed to rectify the same within a week's time, failing which
the same shall be demolished by this department at your own risk and
cost” read the notices, copies of which are lying with Rising Kashmir.
However, sources said, despite the notices, none of them have
rectified the deviations but continued the construction in violation
of the approved building plan at the behest of some politicians.
An official in the PDA told Rising Kashmir, “The time given to the
hoteliers for demolishing their illegal structures on their own has
passed. I fail to understand what the PDA is waiting for. It seems
that the Authority fears to touch the hoteliers because of their high
political connections.”
Although PDA has banned the entry of any construction material in
Pahalgam town, the five influential hoteliers have managed the entry
of such material. “None of them had been granted permission for
bringing the construction material in the town but they did it with
the blessings of politicians and police,” sources added.
However, Executive Engineer PDA Akhter Hussian, while talking to
Rising Kashmir, said, “All the five hoteliers stopped the work on
their illegal constructions just after the PDA issued notices to
them." However, he said one of them (hoteliers) on the directions of
the court was allowed to go on with the construction.
“Whenever we get information regarding any illegal construction, we
take immediate action. Some village people might be doing repair work
which can’t be taken as violation,” added Hussain.
Illegal Constructions Devour Pahalgam’s Fragile Ecology
Ishfaq Mir (Greater Kashmir)
Srinagar: Rampant illegal constructions at Pahalgam continue
to ravage its fragile ecology and environs, even as the officials at
the Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA) express “helplessness” in
preventing the Nature from being plundered by people with high
political connections.
Sources in the PDA said some influential people enjoying political
patronage continue to encroach the land and are erecting structures on
the fragile forest land in violation of the Master Plan.
“Three months ago, five influential hoteliers had made some deviations
to the approved building plan while repairing their hotel buildings or
erecting new structures. They were served notices by the PDA, warning
them to stop the construction but none of them so far has rectified
the deviations,” sources said.
On January 9 last, PDA issued notices to all the five persons vide Nos
EE/PDA/2423-26, EE/PDA/2435-38, EE/PDA/2415-18, EE/PDA/2419-22 and
EE/PDA/2427-30.
“As reported by the Assistant Executive Engineer, you have illegally
made some deviations to the approved building. In this connection you
are directed to rectify the same within a week's time, failing which
the same shall be demolished by this department at your own risk and
cost” read the notices, copies of which are lying with Rising Kashmir.
However, sources said, despite the notices, none of them have
rectified the deviations but continued the construction in violation
of the approved building plan at the behest of some politicians.
An official in the PDA told Rising Kashmir, “The time given to the
hoteliers for demolishing their illegal structures on their own has
passed. I fail to understand what the PDA is waiting for. It seems
that the Authority fears to touch the hoteliers because of their high
political connections.”
Although PDA has banned the entry of any construction material in
Pahalgam town, the five influential hoteliers have managed the entry
of such material. “None of them had been granted permission for
bringing the construction material in the town but they did it with
the blessings of politicians and police,” sources added.
However, Executive Engineer PDA Akhter Hussian, while talking to
Rising Kashmir, said, “All the five hoteliers stopped the work on
their illegal constructions just after the PDA issued notices to
them." However, he said one of them (hoteliers) on the directions of
the court was allowed to go on with the construction.
“Whenever we get information regarding any illegal construction, we
take immediate action. Some village people might be doing repair work
which can’t be taken as violation,” added Hussain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
